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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beware Topless Assassins!, April 22, 2002
This 4th in the Series, brought to you by the folks that let you know sword fighting was a messy and WET business, begins with a lovely young woman, topless and tatooed, slicing up some men in tip-top fashion. Our hero, the implacable and stone-faced Ogami Itto, former Shogun Executioner presently master ronin assassin, will be hired to dispatch the young lady to the next world.This entry is the first not directed by Kenji Mishimi, and is told a little more elliptically with many flashbacks that fill in more detail on the backstory of the Yagyu Clan's enmity toward Ogami Itto that lead them to murder his wife and set him and his young son on the road as "demons at the crossroads of Hell". Lord Retsudo, Itto's arch enemy, reappears and there is much clan intrigue and skull-duggery going on. There is still plenty of fighting and bloody mayhem, a fight in a temple has Ninja arms and legs being lopped off willy-nilly left and right. There is a lot of spraying blood, but there is also the same attention to period detail and the explanation of customs & codes of this long ago civilization, helped by great Liner Notes & Subtitles. It all climaxes with a hellacious fight with Ogami wiping out another army of opponents, but this time by using the terrain of gullies and ravines to his advantage. He ends the fight by taking Retsudo's eye but is badly wounded himself in the process. But, of course, he will live to fight another day. Graphic & fantastic, serious and silly, the Lone Wolf & Cub series is a kick if you've a mind for it.
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